Can qigong be standardized?

There are so many schools of Qigong now, different schools have different content and effect, so it is proposed that Qigong be standardized. That was to say some kinds of Qigong forms ought to be developed and some of them ought to be restricted.

Is it really that Qigong should be standardized? Practice has proved that this proposal is incorrect with traditional Chinese medicinal substances as the latter's properties are relatively regular, namely, the properties of Chinese medicinal substances can be divided into cold, hot, warm and cool.

Doctors may choose some substances to deal with diseases. Generally correct use of drugs will bring you a good curative effect. Qigong is on the contrary. The human body is very complicated. Qigong practicing may cause different changes inside the body. Different forms of Qigong may cause different changes in the body. Theories of Qigong are also different. That is why it is difficult to standardize Qigong.

Xu Yongchun (a physician-in-charge in the Sichuan Caotang Sanitarium for Veteran Cadres) and Liu Shuqin (working in the laboratory of the Sichuan Caotang Sanitarium for Veteran Cadres) and their partners used an XG - 2 Computerized non-invasive instrument to test separately blood circulatory function in 64 patients who had been exercising the 'Juqihongshou Gong' for 15 days. These tests had been done just 20 minutes before and after exercise. They had got some reliable data. The result of these tests showed that the stroke volume, cardiac output, cardiac index, stroke-index and so on had increased greatly. (P<O. 005) All these indicated that the 'Juqihongthe Gongî exercise may restore or improve the functions of the heart and vessels.

There is also a paper published in ((China Qigong))90 (1) entitled by 'The Research on the Effect of Qigong Exercise on the Functions of College Studentsí Cardiovascular Systemî written by Wang Xiuqin and Luo Feng (Lanzhou Air Force Hospital). In this paper, they used the same instrument to study the changes of 25 students' blood dynamics 3 months before and after Qigong practicing. The same items were tested, but the result was different. In these two researches the same instrument and method were adopted and the results were opposite. This fact shows that different Qigong exercise has different effect. Therefore, it is impossible to standardize Qigong forms.